Histochemistry of Anaerobic Glycolysis in Meat Animals

Abstract

This review explains how pH measurements of  pork and beef  are dominated by the post mortem metabolism of one histochemical type of myofibre with alkaline myosin ATPase (fast contraction) and few mitochondria (an anaerobic specialization). Using glycogenolysis to identify the source of the lactic acid that acidifies muscles post mortem, these myofibres are involved in a variety of commercially important phenomena, from PSE (pale, soft, exudative) pork  to electrical stimulation of beef  to increase productivity.